Ephesians 3:16

Ephesians 3:16. That he would grant you. This is the purport of the petition, which some extend to the close of Ephesians 3:17 (but the latter verse is probably the result; see notes there). The word ‘that' means ‘in order that,' but after verbs of praying, etc., in the New Testament, it is used to introduce the purport and purpose of the petition.

According to the riches of his glory. This qualifies ‘grant;' the giving prayed for was in proportion to the fulness of God's perfections (‘glory').

To be strengthened with might, or, ‘power,' coming from God. The instrumental sense is to be preferred to the adverbial (‘powerfully ‘), and to the explanation: ‘with regard to Sower.'

Through his Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can impart such strength.

In, lit.,' unto,' the inner man. Some explain ‘in' as = with respect to, but this does not exhaust the force of the preposition. The strength prayed for was such that it reached to the inner man: this was its constant aim. ‘The inner man' (comp. Romans 7:22) is not equivalent to ‘the regenerated man,' ‘the new man' (chap. Ephesians 4:24), but more nearly identical with ‘the hidden man of the heart' (1 Peter 3:4). Its exact antithesis is ‘the outward man' (2 Corinthians 4:16), not ‘body,' or ‘flesh.' It is not exactly equivalent to the ‘spirit' (1 Thessalonians 5:22), though referring primarily to this, as the sphere of the operations of the Holy Spirit; nor to ‘mind' (Romans 7:21), the latter referring to the human spirit as ‘the practical reason.' To this sphere Paul prays that the strengthening power of the Holy Ghost may reach, precisely because in this part of mam's nature (nobler in its mode of being) the most ignoble slavery has existed; where man was most akin to God the effects of sin have been most terrible. To the view here presented, it has often been objected that it makes ‘spirit,' ‘mind,' ‘the inner man,' unfallen and sinless, or at least opposed to the empire of the ‘flesh,' But such is not the position of its most judicious advocates, nor is it warranted by the statements of Scripture. Comp. the Excursus, Lange , Romans, pp. 232-236, and the similar one in this volume, Romans 7.